Ajdovi Žganci

the rough, tender lumps of cooked buckwheat broken up with a wooden spoon and finished with hot lard and cracklings or with milk, the homely daily bread of the Slovenian countryside and a point of national pride

Origin: Slovenia

From the journey of Buckwheat.

Few dishes are dearer to the Slovenian heart than ajdovi žganci, buckwheat žganci, a homely 'spoonbread' or mush that was for generations the daily bread of the countryside. Buckwheat, ajda, took readily to the cool Alpine valleys and was often sown as a quick second crop after the grain was cut, and from its coarse flour or groats the Slovenian kitchen made this most frugal and beloved of foods. The buckwheat is cooked in salted water into a thick mass, then broken up and worked with a wooden spoon into rough, soft, tender lumps, and finished with hot lard and its crisp cracklings (ocvirki), or with melted butter, or simply with warm milk poured over. It was eaten for breakfast, for supper, and as the labourer's meal in the fields, filling and warming and asking little. Plain to the point of austerity yet deeply comforting, žganci remains a cherished comfort food and one of the dishes through which Slovenes recognise their own.

Ingredients

The Žganci

  • 400 g coarse buckwheat flour (or fine buckwheat groats, ground coarse)
  • 1 litre water
  • 1.5 tsp salt

To Finish

  • 100 g lard with cracklings (ocvirki), or butter
  • warm milk, to serve (optional)

Method

  1. Bring the salted water to the boil in a wide, heavy pot. Pour the buckwheat flour into the centre in a single mound, so that it forms a small island standing just above the water. Do not stir.
  2. Boil, uncovered and undisturbed, for about 15 minutes. With the handle of a wooden spoon, poke a few holes down through the mound to the bottom of the pot to let it cook through evenly, then boil for a few minutes more.
  3. Ladle off most of the cooking water into a jug and reserve it. Now, with a sturdy wooden spoon or fork, break and chop the cooked mass vigorously into small, rough, crumbly lumps, adding back a little of the reserved water if it is too dry.
  4. Heat the lard with its cracklings (or the butter) until sizzling and pour it, hot, over the broken žganci. Toss lightly to coat.
  5. Serve hot, as a side to stews, sausages, or sauerkraut, or as a dish in its own right with warm milk poured over for a humble breakfast or supper.

Notes

Žganci can be made from buckwheat flour or from coarsely ground groats; the texture should be crumbly and loose, not smooth like polenta. For a vegetarian version, finish with browned butter instead of lard and cracklings. The same dish is made with maize (koruzni žganci); the buckwheat (ajdovi) version is the most traditional and most prized in Slovenia.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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